Don't Leave Me
by GellsBells
Summary: While investigating the murder of Jason Blossom Jughead is shot and Betty is forced to try and imagine a world without him.


"Don't you do this to me." She was screaming hoping that somewhere in there he could hear her. That he would hear her voice and come back to her. They had been stupid to come out to The Wyrm on their own. Not even being the son of the leader of the Southside Serpents could save you if you came into their bar, asking too many questions. They had been standing out in the carpark and she hadn't even seen the gun being pulled, but she heard the shot and the way that his body had jerked back before falling to the ground. She only caught a glimpse of the man running before she started screaming, the sound escaping from her mouth seemed not to belong to her.

She pulled out her phone dialling 911 while simultaneously pulling her coat off, pushing it against his side where she could already see blood pooling. The deep red staining the pristine white. Almost mechanically she told the operator what they needed to know. They were outside a notorious bikers bar no one driving past was going to risk stopping for them, they had to wait for the ambulance. His eyes just stared into her own, terrified, she could see the colour draining from his face, sweat beading on his forehead.

"It's bad." He managed to say and she just nodded, blinking back tears as she continued to press against the wound, as the dark red liquid soaked further and further in.

"Just keep still Juggie. There is an ambulance on the way." She told him as calmly as she could as her tears fell down landing on his cheek and she brushed them away quickly, while one hand maintained the constant pressure on his wound. "I can't stop it Juggie. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay." He responded. "I just feel so tired." He mumbled. His eyes flickering closed. Just for a moment.

"No, no, stay with me Juggie, you can't leave me."

"Just for a while." His voice started to drift off. "Just going to close them for a minute." He went to close his eyes and she took a sharp intake of breath, which seemed to jolt him, his eyes opening wide. He was so pale. She could hear it in the background the siren.

"They're coming Jug, I can hear them. Can you hear them?" He didn't speak just shook his head. "Hold on." She told him, her hand squeezing his as she looked at the soaked beanie that she was uselessly pushing against his torso.

She rode with him in the ambulance, watched his eyes warily from behind the oxygen mask that they had placed over his mouth as soon as they had entered the vehicle. She had tried to call his dad but got nothing but a machine. She quickly left a voice message before texting Archie to meet them at the hospital, now. She shoved the phone back in her jean pocket before clasping his hand squeezing tight to let him know that she was there. She was waiting for him.

They took him immediately into theatre and she was in the waiting room alone. Archie had rushed in with Fred in tow. Asking questions about what had happened and she knew Fred wanted to yell about how stupid they had been going alone, but that he didn't have it in him. They asked about FP and Betty explained about the message and Fred left to try him again. Muttering something about probably blind drunk and she tried to block it out because it was too much to hear.

Archie tried to comfort her his arm around her shoulder but she didn't find comfort in it she felt numb. She could hear him saying words to her but they made no sense. She just stared anxiously at the doors where she had last seen him, the paramedics trying to keep him with them, with her and she waited. All she could do was wait and replay the scene over and over again in her head, looking for a moment when she could have saved him. They had been such a part of one another's lives over the past few months that she wasn't sure what a word without Jughead Jones would look like. She almost longed to go back to being the innocent, naive Betty Cooper who was pining after Archie oblivious to the broody boy with the beanie and what a world so completely full of him was like.

"Where is he." The shouts from behind her made her spin round. FP had arrived, Fred Andrews practically at a sprint behind him. She could see the tell tale red around his eyes, his voice hoarse, the slight stagger, he had been drinking, again. Something exploded in her, she jumped from her seat marching over to him and shoved as hard as she could with both hands.

"You." She shouted. "Where were you?" She yelled as she moved in to shove him again. FP stood there dumbfounded by the blonde teen, hair falling out of it's usually pristine pony tail, blood at the bottom of her shirt, she was still clutching that damn beanie, he recognised it anywhere. "He asked for you, why?" She didn't even know what she meant to say, what she wanted to say, all she could feel was pain and anger, rolled into a hot messy knot in her stomach. She felt herself falling, strong arms catching her as she dissolved into a puddle of sobs and crying. She knew it was FP holding her, partly because she felt his own sobs and cries but mostly because of the smell of alcohol permeating the air around her.

"Family of Forsythe Jones?" A doctor came out of the doors to the theatre and Betty felt a despair in the pit of her stomach. She pulled herself to her feet and prepared for the worst.

"I'm his Dad." FP stated, looking anxiously at the man in hospital scrubs in front of them.

"We should talk in private." He said and Betty felt that despair in her stomach swallow her whole.

"Here is fine." FP indicated to herself, Archie and Fred who she didn't realise were now stood either side of her. Archie's hand clasping onto hers. "They need to know too."

"He's lucky, the bullet has just missed his spleen, there was some internal bleeding which we have manage to get under control. We lost him." Betty's sharp intake of breath jolted her body and Archie squeezed her hand. "But he is a fighter. He is going up to intensive care. He is in a medically induced coma will be for a few weeks. Give his body time to repair itself. We will then try to wake him up see if he can breath on his own. And then we will go from there." It was so matter of a fact, so simple.

"Thank you." Fred managed to say while the others continued to stare blankly taking in everything that the doctor had said. Betty managed to speak up.

"Can I see him?" She didn't mean for her voice to come out so small, so defeated.

"Immediate family only I'm afraid." The doctor said sympathetically.

"I want her to see him, Doctor, she's more family then anyone else he has at the moment." FP said.

"Not a long visit. He needs to rest. And I need to warn you that there are a lot of tubes and machines in there. The nurse will take you through." He said as he indicated down the hallway for Betty where she could see a nurse posted at his room. She mouthed a thank you to FP and let go of Archie's hand moving towards his room, almost in a trance.

She tried to keep the tears at bay as she saw him, he looked so small, hooked up to so many machines, tubes down his throat helping him to breath, keeping him alive. She took a deep breath as she pushed the door open and moved to his bedside taking his hand in her own, ignoring how cold it felt in her warm hand.

"I'm so sorry. Juggie. I shouldn't have convinced you to go there and ask those questions. I was so stupid." She couldn't hold them back any longer, they were running down her cheeks splashing down onto her hands as she rubbed them away angrily. "I don't want you to go, I don't know what I'll…" She didn't finish and instead raised his hand gently to her face placing a light kiss across his knuckles.

*

Her mum grounded her, she had expected as much. But she wasn't completly heartless she still drove her to the hospital every afternoon after school, sometimes she would read to him, some days she would talk to him about school, about the newspaper.

She knew this day was coming, when they would switch off the machines and despite the assurances of the doctors that he is doing well, she can't escape the feeling that maybe it won't all be okay. Maybe he will never wake up and she will be forced to try to live her life without him, to try to move on and that strikes a pain in her heart that she can't escape. She smiles at FP as he enters the room, followed by the doctors.

She can only wait as they start to remove the tubes as she watches expectantly holding her own breath as she looks for his chest to rise and fall on it's own. And for the first time in the last few weeks the tears that she sheds are happy ones.


End file.
